Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Here is a little Christmas image I did as a gift for a friend.I always liked the stolid character of St Joseph in the Nativity story, and now, having travelled with my own wife when she was pregnant on a few long journeys over the years, I have more sympathy for him than ever.I think that shows in my picture.

Happy Christmas, and thank you for looking in on my blog.Best wishesPJ

Monday, December 22, 2008

I was asked along with eleven other Irish illustrators to contribute an image to the AIB Calendar for 2009.The theme was about special unknown places around Ireland. We all had great freedom with the brief. Here is my painting and the blurb I put with it.

'Dromahair is a magical place for me. It is in an area steeped in history and folklore.WB Yeats visited the town often, and speaks of Dromahair in his poem,"The Man who dreamed of Faeryland":My picture, set in the ruins of Creveelea Abbey on the hill above the town, is inspired by the etymology of the name: 'Droim a dhá Eathair' meaning "the Ridge of the two air-spirits".'

Thanks to BrenB for including me in this lovely project. You can get a free copy of the calendar from AIB branches if you are a customer of theirs.

It's been quite a while since I posted any life drawings. I was delighted to be invited by James Hanley RHA to join in the RHA life drawing session last week. We had a wonderful model who was asked to retain one pose over the full four hour session. He had breaks every twenty five minutes.Here is one of the drawings I produced. I spent two hours on it, and it was a lovely feeling to have that luxury of time to finish the picture up as much as I wanted.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Cleaning away all the roughs and reference material I was using for Nutcracker, I came across this image. I did it a long time ago for a New York bibliophile called Barry Klugerman who commissioned it to go with his copy of Melisande.I think it's as good as any of the pictures in the book itself.

Friday, December 12, 2008

I hear there might be some coverage of The Gift of the Magi in the Irish Times and the Irish Independent tomorrow, Saturday.I hope they will be kind.

Also I have just done a very brief Vox Pop for the BBC Radio 4 programme, Making History.They are doing an investigation into where Dickens might have taken his inspiration for his character of Ebenezar Scrooge. The programme is usually very interesting, so it might be worth a listen.It goes out at 3pm next Tuesday.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Getting back to the launch of The Gift of the Magi and my retrospective on-line exhibition which took place about two weeks ago, I've finally had a chance to put together a few photos from that joyous night.It was held at Dublin's wonderful No10 venue.Here are a few photographs from the evening.There are still some paintings for sale on-line.

It has been a hectic few weeks. Last night I had the pleasure of being interviewed by my dear friend, Pat Donlon, at the National Library of Ireland.Here's a shot of me signing books at the event.It was a really lovely occasion, beautifully managed by the staff of the National Library, and also by the folks from Children's Books Ireland who co-hosted the event.And I mustn't forget Conor Hacket, who was a great help as usual, and Valentina and Marta from Hughes and Hughes who were selling books on the night.Pat was on really good form. She is such a lovely person, but she is also the consumate professional, and a true authority on the history of Irish Children's books. I first met Pat when she was the Director of the National Library, and she and Collette O Daly purchased a large number of my pictures to initiate the PJ Lynch collection in the Library's archive.I am delighted that Collette's successors in Prints and Drawings, Joanna Finnegan and Honora Faul, have continued to add pieces of mine to the collection over the years since then.

Pat Donlon and her husband Phelim, are now custodians of The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig. It's a wonderful old house in the country where artists and writers can go for a period of intense creativity in the most conducive of surroundings. I can't wait to go.

I would hope to get the video or a podcast from the interview up here at some point.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

I'm told that W5's preparations for the Nutcracker display are going really well.I feel I should be up there painting walls and hoisting figures into position, but I know Adrian and the gang have everything under control, and I'm really busy wrapping up pictures that have been bought from our on-line exhibition.As well as the walk through experience W5 are mounting an exhibition of my original paintings and sketches for the project. This will be the third exhibition of my work that they have hosted over the last five years or so.I'll be doing a lot of filming at the show, so hopefully I'll be able to capture some of the fun on our youTube page.